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First published 2024 by: Bustle & Sew Station House West Cranmore Shepton Mallet BA4 4QP
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WelcometotheAugustMagazine
Hello everyone!
So here we are, the last month of summer - how can this be? The birds are silent now, moulting ready for the winter months to come, whilst this season’s youngsters crowd to our feeders, providing hours of amusements with their clumsy antics, and in the case of the young starlings, noisy squabbles. My kitchen garden is blowsy and full-grown, there’s so much produce to choose from - and plenty of ideas for recipes in this month’s “In the Kitchen” section. Vegetables also appear on my Kitchen Garden placemats, whilst there are pears and lavender between the pages too.
I’m especially pleased with my pear pin cushion - I’m really enjoying experimenting with printing on fabric using freezer paper - no expensive equipment necessary, all you need is a basic inkjet printer. No printer needed for another favourite project though - the Blossoms and Bugs notebook cover - all of these would make great ideas for Christmas presents.
Christmas is still a way off however, and hopefully there will be plenty of golden late summer days to enjoy before then. The September issue will be published on Thursday 29 August in FIVE weeks time, so until then..
Pears are definitely the most aristocratic tree in the orchard. They can be tricky to grow, their fruits are delicate and perishable, remaining at the very peak of perfect for only the shortest of times. But, for those who are prepared to take a little trouble over their pear tree, there is the tantalising reward of an almost perfect fruit. A ripe pear was said to represent, for elegance and grace, the voluptuous form of a woman, whilst the ancient Greeks compared the pear to the fleeting beauty of youth.
Pears originated in central Asia and spread erratically along the ancient trade routes, as they do not grow true from seed. Pear trees were grown by the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans, with the latter two civilisations developing successful breeding programmes. There isn’t any concrete evidence that it was the Romans who brought pears to Britain, but by the time of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 they were very popular in France and the invading Normans would definitely have introduced their favourite varieties. By the time of the Domesday Book, twenty years later, in 1086, pears were specifically mentioned as boundary markers.
Pears at this time were very gritty and had to be cooked before they were good to eat. The most famous pears were Wardens, raised in the fourteenth century by the Cistercian monks at Warden Abbey in Bedfordshire. They were very large and extremely hard and had to be cooked slowly in order to be edible, but were one of the few fruits that could be stored right through the winter months. In Act 4 of Shakespeare’s play “
” a Warden pie, coloured with saffron, is made for the shepherds’ feast.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries France was in the forefront of the increasingly popular pear breeding. Louise XIV was an enthusiastic fruit grower and pears were one of his favourite fruits. There was even a variety called “Ah Mon Dieu” which is said to have been his exclamation upon first tasting a pear.
In 1690 his fruit gardener, Jean de la Quintinie, wrote a gardening manual in which he praised pears above all other fruits, describing more than five hundred varieties, compared with only twenty-seven apples, which he justified with the damming remark, “there is no great difference between them in goodness.” An eighteenth century French encyclopaedia also praised the virtues of the pear, saying that pears were grown in the gardens of the wealthy, whereas apples were found in the orchards of the common folk. This may seem like simple snobbery, but there was good reason for this in that apples were easier to grow and stored better.
Pears have appeared in literature throughout history, sometimes as themselves, but sometimes with subtle double meanings. In by Charles Dickens, Uriah Heep compares his intention to marry Agnes Wakefield with the picking of an unripe pear. David describes how
Many of today’s best known pears date from the nineteenth century when breeding reached its height. In 1770 a pear seedling appeared in the garden of a schoolmaster named Wheeler and grew into an especially fine tree. His successor, John Stair, took grafts and sent them to the nurseryman, Richard Williams. In 1817 specimens were sent to the USA where they ended up at the nursery of Enoch Bartlett, without their labels. He recognised the worth of the fruit and named them Bartlett. By the time the mistake was
discovered it was too late to take any action. Bartlett pears were used in the Californian canning industry and are now the most widely grown pears in the world.
Pears have also made their way into our language. “Apples and pears” is a well known Cockney expression for stairs. It has no hidden meaning whatsoever, it was the rhyme that was important. Cockney rhyming slang was developed so that the East London Cockneys could converse in code in front of the police and other figures of authority, their rhyming slang turning ordinary sentences into seemingly meaningless gibberish.
“Pear-shaped” is a common expression in Britain and Australia, referring to shape, flattering or otherwise, depending upon the context. In the twentieth century it increasingly took on the meaning of something having gone wrong. This interpretation may have originated in the Royal Air Force when aerobatic loops that went a bit wonky became pear shaped instead of round. Whatever the origin of the phrase, it is less well known in the USA and caused consternation when Margaret Thatcher used it in a speech to Ronald Regan on her first visit there!
Pears can also be used to make drinks, most notably perry, which is very similar to cider. It spread across most of Europe with the Romans and was later produced on a large scale by the Normans. It remained popular in France, but had largely disappeared by Victorian times, until its reinvention as Babycham in the mid-twentieth century.
The name first referred to wild pear trees before being used for the drink made from their fruit.
Perry (and cider) were regarded as healthy drinks, rather than intoxicating ones, and William Lawson wrote in 1618,,
I hope that drinkers remembered the names of two of the perry pears - Merrylegs and Mumblehead - which may have given a clue to the consequences of drinking too much of this “wholesome” drink.
Perry is fizzier than cider and in Georgian London was frequently marketed as champagne.
Indigo is a blue powder obtained from plants of the genus that has been used across the globe as a dye for thousands of years. Indigo’s name simply means ‘the Indian’ or ‘from India.’ But , besides India, indigo is found in tropical zones across the world. The oldest known fabric dyed indigo, dated to 6,000 years ago, was discovered in Huaca Prieta, Peru.
The Romans used indigo as a pigment for painting and for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. It was a luxury item imported to the Mediterranean from India by Arab merchants.
Since growing the Indigofera plant in Europe was impossible due to the cooler climate, from the 12th century onward, the Isatis Tinctoria plant, also called woad, which could be cultivated in temperate regions, was grown instead. The dye derived from this plant gives similar results. However, while the production of this dye was equally arduous and time-consuming as for the Indigofera dye, the amounts needed for dying cloth were far less favourable:
Given equal amounts of plant material, woad only yields one thirtieth of the amount gained from Indigofera, which made dyers continue their search for a more profitable alternative.
Finally, in the 17th century, the indigo enthusiasts of the time found what they were seeking in the American colonies. Indigo was introduced into colonial South Carolina by Eliza Lucas, where it became the colony's second-most important cash crop (after rice). As a major export crop, indigo supported plantation slavery there.
When you use indigo as a dye the fibres initially emerge from the vat a pale yellow that changes to green and then finally to blue. Seeing the colour develop in the air must have looked like magic to many early cultures. The dark blue saturated colour with which we’re all familiar is obtained by multiple immersions in the dye vat which build up the intensity of the colour.
AGarden Harvest….
August, for us here at Station House, is the month of our main harvest. In my kitchen garden there are courgettes (zucchini), squash, beetroots, onions, leeks, salads and more besides, whilst in his greenhouse, the Engineer proudly presents his tomatoes. For us indeed, August is the month of the tomato. He likes to grow a number of varieties - large and stripy, enormous beefsteaks for stuffing with all manner of savoury fillings, and lots and lots of small, intensely sweet cherry tomatoes, which the grandchildren love to eat almost like sweets.
But did you know that, in eighteenth century Europe the tomato was believed to be dangerous to eat? It was called the “poison apple” because it was thought that aristocrats got sick and died after eating them. The truth however was that wealthy Europeans used pewter plates, which were high in lead content. Because tomatoes are so high in acidity, when placed on this particular tableware, the fruit would leach lead from the plate, resulting in many deaths from lead poisoning. No one made this connection between plate and poison at the time and the tomato thought to be responsible.
August is one of the most bountiful months of the year for local produce with a huge selection of fruit, vegetables and fish in season for the whole month - and everything seems to be bursting with summery
goodness. Then, before the month is over the hedgerows will be brimming with elderberries and blackberries and the jam and preserve-making season will be upon us. Perhaps the only problem with this month is that there’s almost too much to choose from - there’s no chance that we’ll be able to eat it all. So as well as jam, there will be chutneys, relishes, ketchups and more to be made as well as filling the freezer with yet more goodies to enjoy in the colder months to come.
For now though, there’s still a lot of summer left to enjoy. School is out and from my window I can hear the babble of excited voices as families ride the trains - the miniature railway which goes surprisingly fast is a great favourite with the kids - and explore all that the railway has to offer.
In the old Anglo-Saxon calendar, the first day of August is known as Lammas Day, or loaf mass day. At the beginning of the month, shortly after the main wheat harvest, farmers would bring bread or flour from their new crop to the church. Tenant farmers also had to take a share of their flour to their landlord and the occasion was marked with the Feast of the First Fruits. Today we don’t mark Lammas Day, but rather hold our Harvest Festivals a little later in the year, normally towards the end of September.
Tomatoand BasilSoup
Ingredients
● 1tbsp olive oil
● 2 garlic cloves, crushed
● 5 sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
● 3 x 400g cans plum tomatoes
● 500ml turkey or vegetable stock
● 1tsp sugar, any type, or more to taste
● 140ml soured cream
● 1tbsp pesto
● basil leaves, to serve
●
Method
● Heat the butter or oil in a large pan, then add the garlic and soften for a few minutes over a low heat. Add the sundried tomatoes, canned tomatoes, stock, sugar and seasoning, then bring to a simmer. Let the soup bubble for 10 mins until the tomatoes have broken down a little.
● Whizz with a stick blender, adding half the pot of soured cream as you go. Taste and adjust the seasoning – add more sugar if you need to. Serve in bowls with 1 tbsp or so of the pesto swirled on top, a little more soured cream and scatter with basil leaves.
● Put the flours, sugar and butter into a food processor and whizz to combine (you can do this with your fingers if you don’t have a food processor). Then stir in the cream.
● Bring the dough together and knead gently until smooth - it will be quite soft. Wrap in cling film or parchment and chill until firm.
● Roll out to 5mm thick and cut into shapes - I used a 2” fluted cutter. Arrange on lightly greased baking sheets spacing them apart to allow for some spreading during cooking.
● Lightly press a lavender sprig into each biscuit. Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly golden at the edges, then cool on a wire rack. The shortbread will keep for up to two weeks in an airtight container.
CaringforyourSewingMachine
● Have your sewing machine serviced annually. It's also a good idea to carry out regular mini-maintenance sessions yourself as recommended in your sewing machine manual.
● About every 8 hours of sewing time, or once a season if you don't use your machine frequently, clean the bobbin case as dust and lint gathers here. Use the cleaning brush supplied with the machine to remove this.
● Change needles frequently as a high proportion of problems begin with the needle. You'll save yourself a lot of frustration while stitching!
● One of the best things you can do for your machine is to use a good quality thread. Poor quality threads, or those actually intended for overlockers (sergers) will shed more lint and break more easily which will clog up your tension discs.
● Cover your machine when not in use to keep it dust free.
● Clean your machine before putting it away if you're planning to store it for a while. When you take your machine out of storage, run it for a bit unthreaded.
Lavender is one of those plants that seems somehow to be the essence of summer with its mass of slender stems holding intensely coloured fragrant flowers high above mounds of slivery leaves. Brushing past lavender in bloom will release an intense floral fragrance - truly a delight for all the senses.
Lavender is often thought of as a quintessentially English plant, yet when it’s grown in large commercial fields I am transported to the landscapes of Provence, France, where fields of vivid purple stretch far into the distance. In fact lavender originates from hot dry Mediterranean regions and loves the sun. It was first brought to Britain by the Romans, nearly 2000 years ago, and since then it has been cultivated for its scented flowers and leaves and to make essential oils.
Lavender oil is used as a natural antiseptic and herbal remedy as it’s good for treating wounds, headaches, stress and insomnia. It’s also a popular fragrance for perfumes and soaps - indeed its name is thought toderive from the Latin verb which means to wash.
By the seventeenth century lavender was being grown commercially in the south east of England, which may possibly offer clues to the origin of some street names in south London such as Lavender Hill in Battersea which was an important region for lavender farming in Victorian times. The English lavender growing and distilling industry, producing brands such as Yardley, went into decline in the 20th century due to disease and cheaper production methods in Europe, but in recent years there has been something of a revival and some lavender farms open to the public in summer.
In the garden lavender is a great choice if you are seeking to create a low hedge. You can achieve a formal effect by keeping it closely clipped, but can also create a relaxed and informal look by allowing it to flower in summer and then cutting it back once the flowering season is over. A lavender hedge makes an attractive feature on either side of a pathway, but remember to make the path wide enough to allow the lavender flowers to spill across it, yet leaving enough space for you to walk.
For a hedge choose plants with a uniform compact shape such as which produces very intense deep blue flowers, though there are also forms with green, white or pink flowers. Cut back any woody stems in autumn and sow fresh seed in late summer or autumn. You can also propagate from cuttings.
As well as cosmetics, soaps and perfumes, lavender flowers can be used in baking and jammaking or to flavour sugar. More frequently, the dried flowers and foliage are used to perfume rooms or packed into sachets and hung in wardrobes to perfume clothes and provide some protection against moths. Flowers destined to be used in this way should be harvested as soon as they open, when the colour and fragrance are at their most intense.
Lavender sugar makes an unusual addition to shortbread, and is great sprinkled over a sponge or stirred into berries, or why not give jars of lavender sugar as gifts or wedding favours - after all it could hardly be easier to make! All you need to do is to take 2 lbs of sugar and stir in 2 teaspoons of dried lavender flowers, then divide between 8 or 10 small jars. Leave for a week or so to infuse, and that’s all there is to it!
